Eclipse

The clouds weren't thick. There were patches of blue 

when I first looked up, just after two, through

special glasses for looking at the sun

and already a tiny C was gone

from the bottom right and every time I

looked up there was more dark and less light

I'd been walking. Now I was by the lake

The clouds thickened, closed in without a break

like the curtain on a stage where you

know something's happening just out of view

It became very cold. Darkness deepened

and at exactly the moment, 3:19

the curtain parted to show the full black moon

Obscuring all but a sliver of sun

which is four hundred times its size 

but conveniently four hundred times

farther away, the proportion that makes

possible this moment of seeing - our place

in space - one brief glimpse before it was veiled

The earthly clouds that hid, and then revealed 

made drama of rotating planetary spheres

Theatre we'd have missed had the day been clear